Federal prosecutors: Former Rosemead Mayor John took bribes, solicited sexual favors from developers

ROSEMEAD - Federal prosecutors alleged this week that former Rosemead Mayor John Tran accepted bribes to fuel a gambling addiction, solicited sexual favors from a developer and tried to escape prosecution by turning over other corrupt politicians.

The allegations were part of the prosecutors' latest court filing to fight Tran's request to withdraw his earlier guilty plea in a federal bribery case against him.

The defense earlier this month filed a motion to withdraw Tran's March guilty plea after uncovering information damaging to the credibility of the FBI's main informant in the case.

Although prosecutors in the case have declined to identify the confidential informant in their case against Tran, she has been identified in court and Rosemead city filings as Tammy Gong, a developer who provided Tran with more than $10,000 in exchange for city council approval of her project on Valley Boulevard and Rio Hondo Avenue in Rosemead. When Tran failed to deliver, she went to the FBI, according to court documents.

Tran's attorney argues that his client based his decision to plead guilty on a false perception of the strength of the case against him. He says the government failed to meet obligations to deliver information about the central witness, specifically that Gong is a "serial litigant" who has been named a defendant in at least nine fraud-centered lawsuits since 2005 and used at least 10 aliases in public filings.

In their response to Tran's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, federal prosecutors argue that the defense isn't entitled to the identities and backgrounds of government witnesses in the plea bargaining process. And they disagree with the "defendant's assertions that the victim/CI is the `government's central witness."'

The response, filed Monday by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Akrotirianakis, includes allegations that Tran solicited the bribes to feed a gambling addiction and solicited sexual favors "while the victim/CI had business pending before the city of Rosemead."

Tran's attorney Michael Zweiback, a former federal prosecutor and colleague of Akrotirianakis, said the defense has always maintained that Tran had a gambling problem, but that he was seeking treatment to remedy the issue.

The defense attorney said it was Gong who made numerous sexual advances toward Tran, however he declined to say if Tran ever reciprocated. The defense plans to file an official response to Akrotirianakis on Monday, he said.